Martin Scorsese's List of 85 Films You Must See
by Col Needham | created - 25 Feb 2012 | updated - 25 Feb 2012 | PublicThis comes via an article from Anne Thompson. Which points at Martin Scorsese's 85 films you must see. How many have you seen? I am at 62/85, mostly missing the early and/or Italian titles, no doubt like many others.
Scorsese has excellent taste in the UK and US titles, especially the noirs, so I am definitely going to catch-up on the ones I am missing.
Finally, yes, there's a bit of a debate over whether Scorsese labelled the list as such, but whatever, it looks like a great set of titles to catch.
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1. Ace in the Hole (1951)
Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
Votes: 38,904 | Gross: $3.97M
2. All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Passed | 89 min | Drama, Romance
An upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel
Votes: 16,524
3. America America (1963)
Approved | 174 min | Adventure, Drama
A young Greek stops at nothing to secure a passage to America.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, Elena Karam, Harry Davis
Votes: 5,949
4. An American in Paris (1951)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary
Votes: 36,613 | Gross: $4.50M
5. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 705,263 | Gross: $83.47M
6. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,701
7. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance
An unscrupulous movie producer uses an actress, a director and a writer to achieve success.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell
Votes: 16,352
8. The Band Wagon (1953)
Passed | 112 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray
Votes: 12,488
9. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
R | 145 min | Biography, Drama, War
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
Votes: 115,213 | Gross: $70.00M
10. Cape Fear (1962)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin
Votes: 31,674
11. Cat People (1942)
Not Rated | 73 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Votes: 25,752 | Gross: $4.00M
12. Caught (1949)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 4,322
13. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 463,451 | Gross: $1.59M
14. The Conversation (1974)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 120,676 | Gross: $4.42M
15. Dial M for Murder (1954)
PG | 105 min | Crime, Thriller
A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams
Votes: 187,602 | Gross: $0.01M
16. Do the Right Thing (1989)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson
Votes: 111,571 | Gross: $27.55M
17. Duel in the Sun (1946)
Passed | 129 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Beautiful, biracial Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between two brothers, one good and the other bad.
Directors: King Vidor, Otto Brower, William Dieterle, Sidney Franklin, William Cameron Menzies, David O. Selznick, Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 9,425 | Gross: $20.41M
18. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Passed | 150 min | Drama, Romance, War
An extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.
Director: Rex Ingram | Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard
Votes: 3,536 | Gross: $9.20M
19. Europe '51 (1952)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama
A wealthy woman becomes obsessed with humanitarianism when her young son dies after committing suicide.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, Giulietta Masina
Votes: 4,731
(original title: Europa ’51)
20. Faces (I) (1968)
R | 130 min | Drama
A middle-aged man leaves his wife for another woman. Shortly after, his ex-wife also begins a relationship with a younger partner. The film follows their struggles to find love amongst each other.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel
Votes: 11,570
21. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Approved | 188 min | Drama, History, War
The death of Marcus Aurelius leads to a succession crisis, in which the deceased emperor's son, Commodus, demonstrates that he is unwilling to let anything undermine his claim to the Roman Empire.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason
Votes: 10,081 | Gross: $4.75M
22. The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
Not Rated | 85 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A series of vignettes depicting the lives of the original Franciscan monks, including their leader and the bumbling Ginepro.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Aldo Fabrizi, Gianfranco Bellini, Peparuolo, Severino Pisacane
Votes: 4,006
23. Force of Evil (1948)
Passed | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An unethical lawyer who wants to help his older brother becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.
Director: Abraham Polonsky | Stars: John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson, Marie Windsor
Votes: 7,609
24. Forty Guns (1957)
Not Rated | 80 min | Western
Showdown in Arizona between the Bonnell brothers, U.S.Marshals, and Jessica Drummond, the iron-fist rancher who controls the territory.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger, John Ericson
Votes: 6,133
25. Germany Year Zero (1948)
Not Rated | 78 min | Drama
A young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Edmund Moeschke, Ernst Pittschau, Ingetraud Hinze, Franz-Otto Krüger
Votes: 13,578
26. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 34,990
27. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,995,842 | Gross: $134.97M
28. Gun Crazy (1950)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: John Dall, Peggy Cummins, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 14,656
29. HealtH (1980)
PG | 105 min | Comedy
A parody and satire of the U.S. political scene of the time, "HealtH" is set at a health-food convention at a Florida luxury hotel, where a powerful political organization is deciding on a new president.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Carol Burnett, Glenda Jackson, James Garner, Lauren Bacall
Votes: 921
30. Heaven's Gate (1980)
R | 219 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
During the Johnson County War in 1890 Wyoming, a sheriff born into wealth does his best to protect immigrant farmers from rich cattle interests.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston
Votes: 16,987 | Gross: $3.48M
31. House of Wax (1953)
GP | 88 min | Horror
An associate burns down a wax museum with the owner inside, but he survives only to become vengeful and murderous.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones
Votes: 20,114 | Gross: $23.75M
32. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Family
At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp
Votes: 26,285
33. The Hustler (1961)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, Sport
An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott
Votes: 86,434 | Gross: $8.28M
34. I Walk Alone (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Frankie Madison leaves prison expecting a share from his ex-partner. But Prohibition bootlegging didn't prepare Frankie for Big Business.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey
Votes: 3,265
35. The Cake-Walk Infernal (1903)
Not Rated | 5 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Deep into a vast cavern of the pitch-black inferno, a couple of professional dancers demonstrate the cakewalk that is currently so much in vogue, and now, everyone in the once-gloomy underworld is doing the crazy dance. Who is the best?
Director: Georges Méliès | Star: Georges Méliès
Votes: 1,185
36. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A renegade reporter trailing a young runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York, and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 111,503 | Gross: $4.36M
37. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
G | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Family
The legendary Greek hero leads a team of intrepid adventurers in a perilous quest for the legendary Golden Fleece.
Director: Don Chaffey | Stars: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, Laurence Naismith
Votes: 30,748 | Gross: $4.58M
38. Journey to Italy (1954)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
An unhappily married couple attempts to find direction and insight while vacationing in Naples.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Maria Mauban, Anna Proclemer
Votes: 12,099
39. Julius Caesar (1953)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, History
The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Louis Calhern, Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud
Votes: 12,700
40. Kansas City (1996)
R | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, Michael Murphy
Votes: 5,378 | Gross: $1.35M
41. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 21,949
42. Klute (1971)
R | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider
Votes: 29,377 | Gross: $17.44M
43. The Earth Trembles (1948)
Not Rated | 160 min | Drama
In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli, Antonio Arcidiacono, Giuseppe Arcidiacono
Votes: 5,558
44. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir